I've hung my overcoat at the crossroads of media technology and social change for the last 20 years as a journalist, author, and consultant. That includes a book - CauseWired: Plugging In, Getting Involved, Changing the World (Wiley) which chronicles the rise of online social activism - and bylines at The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Huffington Post, techPresident.com, Social Edge, Industry Standard, Inside, Worth and Contribute magazines, among many other publications. I co-founded three companies, including the pioneering '90s protoblog @NY and CauseWired, my consulting firm currently advising clients on the social commons. In my spare time, I'm an adjunct instructor of social media and philanthropy at New York University.

'Brave' Is Actually Quite Brave: Pixar's Fantastic Feminist Document

Sure, the heroine at the center of Brave is a princess, a plot decision met with some derision from the feminist commentariat, which was looking for a more radical lead role in Disney and Pixar’s new hit movie, heavily promoted as a movie about a new type of cinematic girl (new at least for big budget animated adventures). But I’m inclined to dismiss that dismissal and to conclude that Brave really is a radical departure for the Pixar hit machine. And to my eye, it’s an important mainstream feminist document.

First, let’s get this out of the way. Brave is important because it’s a big budget mainstream flick – one of the summer’s feel-good family hits! – not an art house indie or a film that a dozen film students load into their Netflix queues. Many millions will watch. And many millions of children will watch over and over and over again – as is the habit of children with their favorite movies. That means many millions of boys and girls will internalize the ethics of Brave, just as they did Toy Story or Wall-E or Finding Nemo.

And those ethics revolve clearly around a notion of feminism that dashes away the post-feminist compromise and places – oh, the very radicalism of it – free will at the center of a strong female character’s plot line. To put it bluntly, Merida is the first animated princess in major American film history who does not fall in love, who does not act on the basis of romantic motivation, and who does not (mild spoiler alert) choose a handsome mate in the end.

And another thing: Brave isn’t triumphalist. It doesn’t imagine a young girl triumphing over the patriarchal society of tribal Scotland and dashing away all its conventions. Indeed, the film reveals its beating feminist heart in the portrayal of the choices, and compromises (except on one crucial point related to marriage), and alliances that Merida must make to save her family. Yet her strength of character succeeds over her physical gifts (archery and related cartoon medieval daredevilry) and Merida emerges every bit the conflicted, three-dimensional character that made, say, Woody so memorable.

A lesser film would have made Merida’s plot to out-man the men at archery the end of the story, but this more realistic portrayal shows how individual action can make the situation worse. Only when the female characters start to work together—to take the collective action so beloved by progressive organizers—does actual change occur. In the end, Brave doesn’t have much to do with girl-power fantasies that imagine girls doing it for themselves without offering a real challenge to male privilege. But it tells a story that feels awfully familiar to those doing feminist work in the maddeningly complex real world.

There are also themes in Brave that relate closely to our own war-like society, and I don’t think this is any accident. As Marcotte says, “We don’t get much in the way of imaginative alternatives to our current problems, but we do get a scathing satire that doesn’t hold back despite being in a children’s movie.” What we do get is a contrast between manly endless war and the application of “soft power,” that Hillary Clintonesque ideal that fairly ripples through the world of global NGOs, public causes and the increasingly female-dominated foreign service. There is a conflict in Brave between sheer physical force – which Merida sometimes demonstrates – and the force of a leader who holds the ethical high ground, embodied by her mother. In Slate, Hanna Rosin gets to why Brave may make some movie-goers uncomfortable in the same way that female Presidential candidates do:

When the Queen explains to Merida why she can’t be rebellious she lists not just generic duties to the kingdom but personality traits which a proper princess should have: compassion, patience, caution, cleanliness, a yearning for perfection. This could very well describe the average ambitious college girl. People often ask why there aren’t more women in power. The real answer is that even though women are more successful than ever these days, we hold on to a cultural ambivalence about women with real power. Women can be competent, perfect, compassionate, but not quite dominant.

I think this is partly because we associate dominance with physical force. In the hunter/gatherer origin myth, men control the resources because they have more upper body strength. And even though upper body strength is irrelevant now, we haven’t been able to let go of the myth.

The irony of Brave lies in breaking this myth with the brilliant CGI creation of a red-headed princess from a land long ago. And doing so in a movie the whole family will enjoy.

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Unfortunately, the story required the Queen, who embodies the “old” princess archetype, for the story to have any movement or meaning. Pixar’s attempt at changing the old princess story has done nothing but to reinforce it. The movie proved that Pixar isn’t stronger than the genre. We need look no further than the marriage of Kate Middleton to Prince William, and the overall fascination with the event, to inform us that the princess story is alive and well. Sorry Pixar, your “new princess story” did nothing but to perpetuate a genre that will live on, because there will always be young girls who want to be princesses, despite the rantings and ravings of the extreme feminists.

I really could care less about any “message” that this cartoon is trying to send. In fact, your review made it LESS interesting for me to watch. I go to movies to enjoy the movie, not learn how to be a better person, more accepting or anything like that. These kinds of articles is like letting Debby Downer in, armed with a soaking wet blanket. It has been the kiss of death for many TV sitcoms and movies, when the audience realizes it’s not about being entertained – but someone has “something to say”. now, if that was the stated intention from the outset, then that’s fine – but don’t have me go to an adventure cartoon movie so you can teach me about feminism. When I want to see females doing things just like men, I’ll go to an WNBA game – which, btw, is REAL LIFE; I don’t need a cartoon to tell me what females can do.

as a girl, i grew up enjoying stories with both male and female protagonists. i’d use my empathetic imagination, and i loved those stories. but the boys i grew up with wouldn’t enjoy any story with a female protagonist. they’d call it dumb, say it was for girls.

i’m 33 now, and the critical language has gotten more sophisticated, but the instinct is the same. stories created by women and stories that feature female protagonists are dismissed as trivial, unambitious, uninteresting.

the movie was only boring if you’re not willing to use your empathetic imagination to enter a world through a female perspective. sadly, that’s true of a lot of people. it’s exhausting.

The story wasn’t anymore original than every other “girl power” movie ever made.

All the men in the story are there purely for comic relief, don’t believe me then compare the character designs of the men and women. There are no “men” in the story only manchildren.

The only villian in the film is a male who’d been turned into bear.

Female character proves she’s ten times better than all the men in some activity, in this case archery.

The female character’s troubles are because of the demands put on her by a patriarcal society.

Brave in this sense is no different than any other “girl power” story.

What I saw was the story of a selfish teenage girl who deliberately poisoned/cursed her mother who, even as her mother was feeling the first effects of the curse was trying to get her way with her. Upon realising her mother has been dangerously hurt by the poison/curse doesn’t ask for help from her father or any other responsible adult but runs away and by pure luck manages to save the life of the mother she poisoned.

OH MY GOD you had to endure a movie where the characters of your gender were 2 dimensional and far less complex than the characters of the other gender?? Poor thing. Thank god i’m a woman so i never have that experience.

men complain a lot when they’re denied privilege. must be hard for you.

it’s not pure luck. you dismissed a movie without even watching it. the characters you identified with weren’t interesting and you weren’t willing to try to experience something through another point of view.